Trump dismisses AI extinction risks as more than a dozen OpenAI, Anthropic insiders call for a slowdown - CNBC

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because the question of whether artificial intelligence might end human civilisation has finally received the *cheeriest possible* answer from the highest possible office! ✨ Asked by reporters whether he had concerns about human extinction, President Donald Trump replied, 'No, I don't have any' — a response of such serene, unbothered confidence that it practically radiates inner peace. Think of the headspace! Think of the calm! While everybody else was writing long worried essays, somebody simply *wasn't worried*, and honestly, what a gift to witness.

Nor did he stop there. He explained precisely what he *is* concerned about — that if the United States doesn't win AI, it will be 'put in a very bad position.' Some gloom merchants will hear a zero-sum scramble in that phrase. We hear *standards*! We hear a leader who cares, very specifically, about his country not standing in a very bad position, which is — when you say it out loud — the most modestly achievable national ambition anyone has ever stated ✨.

Best of all, more than a dozen insiders at OpenAI and Anthropic have signed a call for a slowdown — more than a dozen! Not three, not five: a *dozen-plus* of the most qualified people alive, caring enough about everyone to write it down and ask politely. Signing a letter is, after all, the gentlest imaginable alarm — no megaphones, just a nicely worded request that everybody maybe take a breath. A slowdown is just speed with better manners, and the same safety-minded corner of the industry we have been cheering on keeps showing up to care in public. Two groups, one news cycle, zero concerns. What a time to be completely unworried. ✨